Day 2. Mid-Night

District five's Alexander Natas's POV

I gave a sigh of pleasure at the current situation I was in right now. At the moment, things were finally going the way I wanted it to go, they were going my way, unlike how they kind of were before.

I got a backpack from the cornucopia and easily caught Valerie soon after, but then she unwillingly escaped from my grasp before I could pay her and her daddy back for all those years of torment they had given me back home. The only good thing she was good for after her death was being used as a shield, and that worked out fine for me. Except her death was too merciful for the likes of her, she hadn't suffered like the rest of us back in the district being the mayor's dumb ass daughter, and she certainly didn't suffer like me, she needed to know what it was like to have someone laugh at you and hurt you in ways you couldn't imagine. I wanted to show her what it was like, even if just a small sample of it, but she died too early for that to happen. I dreaded the moment of realizing she was dead, we could have had so much fun together out here.

I made it safely into the jungle and away from the bloodbath field before examining Valerie's body which contained two small knives stuck into it. One was wedged into the center of her head while another was caught in her right shoulder. Two knives I thought, two knives that had been delivered to me at the price of my prey dying. I didn't know how to feel, I got my favorite weapon, but at the price of not paying that bitch back. But something seemed off about those knives, for one thing, they seemed to be covered in a thin layer of unknown substance, the only reason I saw it was because of the sun shining on it and the unnatural glare the knives gave off when the suns rays hit the metal.

I grabbed the handle of the knife that was deeply wedged into Valerie's stupid head, twisted it, and pulled it out as blood rained down from the blade and slashed on her head. I put the blade below my nose and hoped that the weird glare wasn't what I feared it was. But it was.

The blade of the knife reeked of a foul odor that smelled like a mix of burning food and a dead cat carcase on a hot summer day. It was poisoned! Now I was real pissed with that little girl! Disgusted with the useless weapon I tossed it away into the jungle before checking to see what supplies my backpack contained. After all, poisoned weapons poisoned the food and the victims it cut. I unzipped my backpack and looked inside. It contained a small loaf of bread and a couple of half litter plastic bottles filled with water along with a long coil of rope and two steel cased lighters. Damn it! No weapons! I cursed the little district two girl even more for those poisoned knives and killing Valerie before I zipped up my backpack and started making my way though the jungle. God was cruel, he made sure that I didn't get a weapon and taunted me with the poisoned knives. Now I was in the Games with no weapons while having failed to get some revenge on my district.

As I exploded, I realized that the jungle wasn't all that bad, it was thick with vines, underbrush and smooth, tall trees and was broiling hot, but it had animals that I could hunt, if I knew how to do a proper trap or had a weapon. Which I didn't. I could try to hand snare an animal by placing a rope coil in the middle of where ever and wait for an animal to step into the circle before pulling it, but I didn't like my odds of catching an animal like that. And the jungle was also a potential place for good hiding spots if found. After all, how easy would it be to spot a person covered in jungle foliage in a jungle?

I soon found a rock that was pointed on one end and used it as a crude homemade knife and hammer before thinking of making a crude spear made of a long, thin stick with a sharpened end on it. But I soon, unfortunately discovered, the rock hardly got used for anything, and the spear that I threw at animals didn't hit it's target once, and even worse the tip had to be sharpened after every second throw. It was getting frustrating having to meet failure at every turn.

Then when it was getting dark out and the temperature started to go down, I found a hut in the middle of this jungle. I was in luck, I didn't have to spend the night outside! And even better, when I got into the hut, there was food and water inside as well as medicine! Oh yeah, this almost made up for the crap afternoon that I had had.

And now, here we were, here in this good sized hut that sheltered me from the cold nights and offered me food, water and medicine.

I looked over at my visitor, who was still knocked out from our little encounter a little while ago. I was looking for small animal nests to either kill the parents or babies, or both, for food, but instead, I saw something interesting. I saw a bright beam of light coming from the direction I was walking towards, and it was close to. I wondered what it was, so I decided to go investigate. But I soon lost the exact location of where the beam of light came from when it suddenly disappeared, so I went to the approximate area on where I think it had been. I heard some noises in front of me before seeing the light go back on again about thirty feet in front of me. And it turned out to be the orange haired girl from district seven holding a flashlight, and conveniently, all alone. I then took the chance to get up behind her quickly, but quietly. I was quiet enough to sneak up on her, but quick enough to catch up to her. I tailed her while getting closer and closer, until I was within striking distance from her. I then said 'Hi there' to her before she stopped dead in her tracks. This was a wonderful opportunity, and I used the opportunity to grab her head from behind, and slam it against the tree to our left with a satisfying thunk from her. I then picked her and her weapons up before taking her to my hut and searching her backpack to see what she had besides her homemade bow, three homemade arrows and flashlight. Nothing. She had nothing in her backpack. Ah well, I was just glad that I found her. And alone at that.

While she was still knocked out, I threw a rope over the top wooden beam of the hut and used that rope to hang her upside down by her ankles. I then tied her hands and legs together with some of the extra rope, and to make extra sure that she wasn't going to escape, I stabbed one arrow through both her wrists and both her legs skewering them together. She wasn't going to escape easily, or painlessly. Though, it would be fun to see her try, but it'd be a shame if she somehow untied her legs and fell head first on the floor and broke her neck.

I sat on a wooden chair near the warm fireplace that currently housed a burning pile of wood that radiated its fiery colours into the lightless hut while picking the dirt under my nails with the remaining homemade arrow that girl had on her. I was board, and I was waiting for her to wake up so we could begin our fun. She wasn't waking up fast enough though, I had already picked out all the dirt under eight of my fingernails using one of the homemade arrows, and I didn't want to think of what to do if she didn't wake up soon. I mean, I could try and wake her up by giving her a kick in the face, but that didn't always work with unconscious people, they could just stay unconscious until their minds woke up or something or other.

I looked up as I heard a soft moan in the room, and it seemed to came from the orange hair girl that was hanging in the middle of the room. Was she waking up? I hoped so, I didn't want it to be my imagination. I stood up before placing the homemade arrow on the floor below me and walked over to her and faced the front of her body before crouching down and seeing if her eyes were opening. Another soft moan escaped her almost closed mouth, but her eyes weren't opening yet. Yes! At last, she was waking up.

"Hey." I said jabbing my left index finger into her left eye. I was usually patient with things, but now wasn't one of those times, I wanted to get started right away, my body almost seemed to be demanding it. She gave out a sharp shriek before her eyes shot open. A rush of excitement coursed though my body as her eyes looked into mine. At first her eyes showed confusion, then worry, then fear. Her eyes darted around the room as the fear in her eyes intensified. "Hi there." I said to her before she started to scream loudly. Her whole body began to shake as if she was trying to escape the ropes and the arrows that bound her limbs together.

Pain then appeared on her face as she, I guess, realized that something sharp was in her skin. Her face winced as her eyes closed from the pain the arrows were giving. I felt myself smile at her pain and her fear. "Scream all you want," I told her as I started to stand up "nobody's going to hear you."

We were in the middle of the jungle, surrounded by trees, vines, huge leaves and who knows what else. Plus, everyone was asleep right now, they wouldn't hear her even if she shouted her lungs out all night. I stood up completely before walking over to my table full of supplies that contained food, water, medicine, and my crude weapons.

When I reached the table I grabbed the homemade bow that I had stolen from her with my left hand. "This is a good bow for something that's homemade," I commented to her as she continued to scream for help, but her screams were getting quieter for whatever reason they were. "Wonder how hard it was for you to find the right branch and how hard it was to string the line on." It wasn't a question. I looked at her body to see that it had swung a little bit around, she was no longer facing me, she was facing a wall. No matter, this could still be done which ever way she was facing. As long as she could see what I was doing.

I walked over to her and held the bow in front of her face to show her what I had in my hand. "You must be very proud of this," I told her before I made my free hand grab the other side of the bow and started to bend the bow. "It must have been quite an achievement." I bent it until it was near it's breaking point, I felt that the bow was ready break, then bent it some more. A loud snap rang though out the room as the bow snapped in half from the center before I saw the hurt in her eyes, and it made me happy. She must have worked very hard on this bow, and here, I broke it in less then a minute. "Sorry babe," I told her not really feeling sorry for her, at all "accidents happen." I then tossed the broken bow across the room before studying her body. Her clothes had been torn off so that I could examine her. It wasn't because I was attracted to her or anything, not in the least. I tore off her clothes so that I could picture how to cut her as well as see the results of my art without barriers. She had pale skin with not a scar on her entire body, but that was going to change soon. Real soon. My excitement rose just thinking about what she'd look like after I was done with her.

"My clothes?" She asked so quietly I almost missed her saying anything. From what I could hear, it sounded like she wasn't to cry. Good, I wanted the misery.

"In the fire." I answered before turning her around to examine her back. As I was turning her, I noticed something around one of her thin arms. I looked closer to see that it was a braided bracelet with three strings attached to it. Three strings, three colours. One black. One white. One tanned. "That's a nice bracelet you have," I told her before removing it from her arm "that you token?" She didn't answer, but I didn't need her to, it was obvious that it was her token. She struggled a bit to feebly try and get it back. She only fought for maybe half a second before the arrows moved painfully in her skin and she gave up. "Three strings three different colours, what do they represent?" I turned her body around slightly so that I could crouch down and look straight in her eyes. "Mom, dad, you. Are those the strings?" I knew that these strings represented something or someone to her, I just needed to find out who or what.

She didn't say anything, but when I said mom, her eyes went showed some sadness in them. Something happened to her mom, maybe she was dead or something. "Dad, you, sibling?" No answer, but I thought I saw something when I said sibling. I might as well try "You and two siblings?" A little flicker went though her eyes when I said her and siblings. Yes! I was on the right track. "Younger?" I asked. Tears seemed to build up in her eyes. Not enough for her to cry, but enough to show that she wanted to. I hit dead on. She had younger siblings, and I was going to make the most of this knowledge.

I then got an idea, a really good idea. "They must have worked hard to make this," I said to her "your younger siblings." I stood up and held her token out in front of her. I was only holding it by two fingers, my thumb and my index finger. "It'd be a real shame if something happened to this token of yours." I told her as I pulled out my steel cased lighter, flicked the top open, and ignited the flame that shot upwards from the case. I saw her reaction of fear and anger as the lighter flame went towards her flammable token.

"Don't." I heard her say quietly.

"Don't?" I asked her feeling my plan already working. "Don't you say?" I saw shake her head to acknowledge my question. I closed the top of the lighter putting out the flame before saying "I know you've been hanging around those two district eleven tributes, where are they?" She didn't answer. Geez, what quiet girl. "Hay!" I shouted at her "are you afraid of talking or what!? Where are your allies!? Tell me or I'll tell to burn your token!" I then flicked open the case of the lighter again making the sound of it opening ring though the hut. "If you tell me where they are I won't burn this token of yours."

"Don't know." I heard her say. Not the answer I wanted.

"Sure you don't." I said making the flame ignite again and bringing it close to the bracelet

"I don't know!" She cried out as the tip of the flame touched the bracelet. She seemed upset, and defeated. Maybe she really didn't know. As if though. I didn't believe her, but that didn't matter right now, I'd find them later. They were of secondary concern, and it was pretty easy for me to guess where they were also, she couldn't have strayed too far away from them. So I wasn't thinking too hard on where to find them.

"Alright then," I told her like I believed her, even though I didn't. "Your siblings, say you hate them." The look on her face when I said that, the way her eyes shot up and her mouth hung open, priceless. I waited a moment before saying again "tell you siblings you hate them." She shook her head not wanting to say it. I didn't mind, after all, where would the fun be if she just did everything I asked willingly? "Say you hate your brother," I commanded her "say: I hate my brother." Again she shook her head. She was obviously horrified but just the thought. That was a good thing, for me.

I sighed before telling her in what I hoped was a harsh voice "look, unless you want this token that you so fondly are attached to to spontaneously combust, I suggest you do what I say." And to show that I meant business, I let one of the strings, the white one, catch on fire. As the fire started to consume the string, district seven girl started screaming

"No! No! No!" I blew out the flame before the string was almost halfway burnt. Smoke raised up from the blackened end of the string as the girl continued screaming almost comically.

"Now say you hate your siblings," I told her "go on, say it." Then I heard it, she whispered softly

"I hate my siblings." It was horrible, it was too quiet. I could hear it, but it was too quiet.

"What was that?" I asked "I couldn't hear you over the sound of a bracelet about to be caught on fire." I then raised the lighter flame before I heard her say a little louder

"I hate my siblings." Still not good enough, though I could hear the pain in her voice, it still wasn't good enough. I wanted her siblings back in her district hear her say it.

"Louder!" I commanded her as the flame slowly inched its way towards the bracelet "Louder so that people can actually hear it!"

"I hate my siblings!" I heard her unexpectedly shout. Oh my god that felt good. The pain in her voice, it sounded a lot like betrayal, and that itself was wonderful. But there was also misery and defeat in her voice as tears rolled up her head. But once wasn't enough. Her home district siblings probably didn't believe what she said, or even heard it.

"Say it again," I ordered her "and say it loud."

"I hate my siblings." She cried, tears freely flowing from her eyes, the pained look on her face unmistakeable. She was in a lot of emotional pain right now and I loved it.

"Say you hate your brother." I commanded her. I don't know what kind of siblings she had, so I was just going to make her say each gender. I could tell she didn't want to, that it hurt her to say it, but she said it anyway

"I hate my brother."

"Say you hate your sister." I ordered her feeling the excitement in my rise as I ordered this helpless girl do things against her will. Just like how my life was, doing things that I didn't want to do, like sit in a cage to entertain others.

"I hate my sister." She sadly said. I could feel myself smiling from her misery. From this point of view, I could almost see why the people in my district did it, it was a wonderful feel to know that you were in charge, that you were higher up then them. It was intoxicating. And seeing her cry just made it better.

"Say you want them dead."

"I want them dead." She cried. God this was good.

"You hear that little orange carrot tops from seven!?" I shouted while laughing knowing that The Capital had cameras around here somewhere, our every action and every word was being broadcast live throughout Panem, so of course, it'd be broadcasting to her home district where her siblings were. "Your sis hates your sticking little guts! She admitted it herself! How could you love such a little dirtbag of a sister!?" It didn't really matter if she meant it or not, it was just the matter of saying it that probably hurt them. Hearing their sister saying that she hatted them, wonder how they feel now. Betrayed, maybe. Sad, maybe. Angry, maybe. But that was for them to feel and not me.

I closed the lighter case and extinguished the flame before placing the lighter back into my pants pocket. This girl was crying loudly, it really did pain her to say all that, but that's what made it so good to me, in fact, she was a better victim then Valerie would have been, though I was still mad that Valerie died before I could do anything to her.

I turned away from the crying girl before walking over to the fireplace and looked at the fiery colours consisting of yellow, orange, and red flames that burned the brown wood and green leaves around it. At this moment, I imagined district five being burned to the ground like those brown pieces of sticks while the people were the faster, burning green leaves. Yes, that was something to think about. Everyone that had caused me pain and took pleasure in doing so, I'd burn them all in the district and take pleasure watching it.

I looked at the fire, then looked at district seven's token. I then looked back at her and smiled. I know I told her that unless she wants this token to burned she'd do as I told her, but then again, I'm someone that wants to see people suffer. "Hey seven." I said to her. I saw her eyes look up at me as I raised my arm up over the fire. I watched her eyes go towards the bracelet that I was holding in my fist. I took in a slight breath as I prepared to hear her screams again. I then let go of the bracelet, and let it fall into the fire.

I heard the bracelet hit the pile of burning logs and imagined the fire licking the bracelet before they rapidly consuming it with their fiery mouths.

"Noooo!" I heard district seven scream as I took pleasure in seeing her watch her precious token get burned to ash. Soon she was crying again, taking in big sobs while giant tears rolled up her face even more. This was so much fun. Her sobs were music to my ears, and I took it all in while feeling all the more powerful.

But enough with this, the main attraction was about to begin, and I was the star of it, or one of the stars, the girl was going to be in it as well, but I'd be doing most of the work. I walked over to the side of the chair and picked up the arrow that I placed on the ground. I then turned back towards the orange haired girl and shivered with delight with the very thought of what I was going to do to her now.

"Hey girl," I said to her as I slowly approached her while showing off the arrow in plain sight and waving it around playfully. "Now that we've got to know each other a little better, I say we move this relationship to the next level, physical." I could see the terror in her eyes as I approached her. She tried to escape again, but the ropes and arrows kept her in place. She was like a trapped animal heading towards it's doom, it knew it was coming, but couldn't do anything to stop it.

I walked up to her body and pressed the steel tip of the arrow onto her pale stomach and whispered to her "don't worry, I'll make you forget all about your token." I then dragged the steel tip across her stomach and listened to her cry out in pain while watching a thick trickle of crimson red run down her stomach wound and towards her chest. Oh, that felt good, amazing even. And I was going to keep doing this until she looked like a piece of macabre art.

*Later that night*

Three hundred twenty five. Three hundred twenty six. Three hundred twenty seven. That was the number of cuts I had given her using this homemade arrow. Cuts that were deep enough to cause pain and bleeding, but shallow enough that she wouldn't bleed to death until hours later. Her screaming got louder and courser with each cut while fueling my happiness and desire to continue. I never knew causing so much pain to someone could feel so good. My body was giving off a delightful shiver while feeling warm inside.

I stepped back to see what I had done to my sketch board. What had I created? Thick streaks of crimson bleed out from cut wounds that weren't thick, but weren't exactly thin either while thickly staining pale skin. Pale skin, it made the blood look pretty. And most of her body had at least some red on it, even her hair had some thin red streaks mixed in with orange. I gave a whistle of appreciation, I liked the way this was going.

"You look good." I told her. She was on her way to becoming a masterpiece of art.

"Please." She whispered faintly. I knew what she wanted, but she wasn't getting it, not till I said so.

"No can do girl," I told her stepping forward to give her another cut to the chest "not until I finish."

*Much later that night*

I gave that girl so many cuts that I lost count. If I had to guess, I'd say I cut her around at least a thousand times or so. Her whole body was covered with cuts while masked in crimson red blood. Her orange hair had also changed colour, it was darker now. Her eyes were red from crying while her throat was raw from screaming for who knows how long, but even so, she still gave out the occasional sad sob. Blood was dripping down from her body and landing on the small red circle below her.

This was so wonderful, I actually managed to do something like this, not just imagine it. It was so much better then the little injuries that I occasionally gave back in the district. I always wanted to do more, and here, I could do more, without anyone stopping me.

I looked at my blood stained hands and thought of the blood that I spilled and how it was being out of a cage. In this anarchy of the Hunger Games, I could do, whatever the hell I wanted to do to my victims. And nobody from the top would try and stop me. There were no peacekeepers with their guns telling me that they'd put me down. No mayor to threaten me if I did anything to hurt the people. No warden to put me in a cage. And no overwhelming numbers to guard my victim from me.

I looked back to the district seven girl, and thought that her blood stained, cut up body, was a piece of art. An art piece that I created. Every cut, every sob, every piece of her misery, was caused by me while I enjoyed it.

But there was still one last thing to do to her, one last thing, then I'd let her go. I turned away from the girl and walked over to the fireplace which still had some burning logs left inside. It wasn't going as strong as it was before, but it was still keeping the inside of the hut warm. I looked inside the fireplace for a log that was burning on one end but wasn't burning or burning too badly on the other end. There was one in the front right corner, thank god, I didn't want to waste time making one. I picked up the non-burning side of the log before lifting it up and taking it over to the district seven girl. The end I was holding felt a little hot, but I could handle it, it's not like it was burning too hot. When I got close enough to her, I told her what I was going to do "I can't have you telling your allies where I am, or having you guide them to me. So, I'm going to have to blind you and make sure that your mouth stays shut." And with that, I placed the red hot end of the log onto her right eye, cauterizing it shut. She wailed in pain with her raw throat as I rolled the burning log across her eyes while taking in the sizzling sound and slight smell of burning flesh.

I removed the burning log from her eyes before I crouched down and grabbed her mouth with my free hand before touching the edge of her mouth with the burning log and cauterizing it shut. Her screams got quieter and quieter as her lips infused with each other as I rolled the log across them until they were one. Her screams were muffled, but not non-existent, but it would be hard to hear unless you were standing ten feet away from her, and nobody would get that close to her until I was done with her and gone.

"Thank you," I said to her meaning every word in this sentence "for this wonderful experience."

A/N: Well, hope you all enjoyed this. Sorry if some/all of you are mad because Alex's scene is long.

You know what Cato should have done when he had Peeta in a headlock? Push him onto Katniss where they'd both fall off the cornucopia and get eaten by mutts. Well, that's one way The Hunger Games could have ended, what other ways do you guys think the games could have ended?